Getting to Know You, Getting to Know All About You...

...Getting to Like You, Getting to Hope You Like Me...

The King and I, anyone??

This week was packed full of social events!! On the front end it was all about meeting knew folks and getting to know new friends better! The tail end involved a trip home and catching up with family and friends!

Tuesday we attended the Riverheads Young Farmers and Ranchers summer social. This group is a little different than the Farm Bureau associated organization that most readers will be familiar with. For starters, the average age of the attendees was probably around 60. But I imagine a lot of their goals are the same. They mentioned being part of a big Virginia Farm Tour and seem to be a really active group that does great things. It was a great opportunity for us both to meet knew people and to hang out with some of Clark's coworkers and FFA members' parents. It seemed like a lot of the members are Westwood clients. I am really looking forward to working with the group in promoting agriculture, supporting the youth, and maybe even as some members' veterinarian!

Wednesday night was trivia at Zabb's in downtown Staunton with some of the Westwood gang. Westwood probably accounted for half of the people in the restaurant :) So we broke into two teams and had a friendly competition. Both teams represented well. The team Clark and I were on, the Westwood Wonders, was leading right up until the end. But in the final round, including a wager, we blew it and the the other Westwood team took home the honors! It was a lot of fun and I'm just glad that we all represented well!

Thursday was a long anticipated "girls" night with my landlord and coworkers at Baja Bean. What was supposed to be a group of 7 ended up being a group of 3-but that's OK! We made the most of it... and the three of us realized that we were the only ones without children :) We missed the others, but it was certainly understandable why they couldn't join us. I'm looking forward to having children one day, but it definitely made me appreciate how life and priorities change once wee ones join the family.

There were a few low points in the week that I'll go ahead and get out of the way...
The week before we noticed that Sadie had a lump on the inside of her right elbow. I knew that it was most likely a "lipoma" or benign fatty tumor, but I wanted to be sure. I took her to work and we poked with a needle to get a sample; sure enough it was. Normally it would be ok to just leave the mass and monitor it for changes. However, with it being in a strange location, we opted to go ahead and have it removed so it would be easier to close the incision. I knew that I did not want to do the surgery myself, but I had no idea I would get so nervous about my own dog being anesthetized! But everything went fine and she even got her teeth cleaned while she was under.

Sadie on the way home after her surgery.
I think she looks good as a truck dog!

Friday was another tough day in small animal. My morning started off by getting bit by a German Shepherd. Fortunately, the bite itself wasn't bad at all; but it was my first time being bitten and it was a pretty scary situation. It definitely shook me up and had my adrenaline pumping. Which was pretty unfortunate because my next appointment was my first small animal euthanasia. I was nervous and it was a sad case, but we were able to prevent that animal from suffering any longer and give the owners peace about their pet. There were a couple of other tough cases throughout the day that really got my wheels cranking; They were the kind of cases that "followed me home." I've thought about them a lot of the weekend and hope they're doing OK!

Enough of that...now to more good stuff!!

I got home from work around 8:00 Friday night (yikes!) and we hit the road to NC shortly after. We arrived to Clark's parents' house around midnight. It was strange to look across the yard and to see someone else's vehicles in the driveway, but honestly, it wasn't as weird as I thought it would be. Clark and I both agreed that what was most strange was looking out to the dog lot and NOT see Bo, Sadie, and Tucker out there waiting for us.

Saturday morning I got to catch up with my good friend, Devon. We went to Mooresville and had a little retail therapy. That afternoon Clark and I went to see my sweet grandmother and then stopped by Pines Pool to see Bob, Deona, and Marion. Luckily, there were several members of our Concordia Church family there too. Saturday night we had a blast celebrating the upcoming marriage of our friends Philip and Lindsay. It was so good to hang out with our "circle of friends." We are so excited for Philip and Lindsay and can't wait to watch them tie the knot in November!

Sunday morning we traveled to Hiddenite to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Pastor and Mrs. Cook being at Berea Baptist Church.

Photo cred: Jill King

I turned 26 in April, so as far as I can remember these two have been the shepherds of my home church. They are wonderful, loving, Godly people and we have been blessed to be under their leadership. The celebration was a surprise to Pastor Cook! It was a very special day and I hope that Pastor and Mrs. Cook felt the love and appreciation our church has for them!

Unfortunately, we had to head up 77 pretty early in the afternoon. Clark and I decided pretty early that our trip wouldn't be complete without stopping here...

Oh that beautiful yellow and red!

We have figured out that the closest Bojangles to Staunton is about 75 miles away so I imagine we will be hitting that location on our travels to and from NC!

This weekend was just what we needed! This past week marked our 1 month moving to Staunton, so it was perfect timing to head home. While we didn't see everyone, we saw a pretty big chunk of our family and friends. I was nervous that the trip might make me homesick. While I miss everyone at home very much and will always be a North Carolinian at heart, I still had a smile on my face as we entered the Shenandoah Valley.